Bill Chappell

Bill Chappell is a writer and producer who currently works on The Two Way, NPR's flagship news portal. In the past, he has edited and coordinated digital features for Morning Edition and Fresh Air, in addition to editing the rundown of All Things Considered. He frequently contributes to other NPR blogs, such as All Tech Considered and The Salt.

Chappell's work at NPR has ranged from being the site's first full-time homepage editor to being the lead writer and editor on the London 2012 Olympics blog, The Torch. His assignments have included being the lead web producer for NPR's trip to Asia's Grand Trunk Road, as well as establishing the Peabody Award-winning StoryCorps on NPR.org.

In 2009, Chappell was a key editorial member of the small team that redesigned NPR's web site. One year later, the site won its first Peabody Award, along with the National Press Foundation's Excellence in Online Journalism award.

At NPR, Chappell has trained both digital and radio staff to use digital tools to tell compelling stories, in addition to "evangelizing" — promoting more collaboration between legacy and digital departments.

Prior to joining NPR in late 2003, Chappell worked on the Assignment Desk at CNN International, handling coverage in areas from the Middle East, Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America, and coordinating CNN's pool coverage out of Qatar during the Iraq war.

Chappell's work for CNN also included producing Web stories and editing digital video for SI.com, and editing and producing stories for CNN.com's features division.

Before joining CNN, Chappell wrote about movies, restaurants and music for alternative weeklies, in addition to his first job: editing the police blotter.

A holder of bachelor's degrees in English and History from the University of Georgia, he attended graduate school for English Literature at the University of South Carolina.

The man who was shot and killed by police last night in a suburb of St. Paul, Minn., had spent more than a decade working for the same school district from which he graduated from high school. Philando Castile as well-liked by students and staff, according to St. Paul Public Schools.

The school district issued a statement today, drawing on coworkers' comments about Castile — including one person who said, "Kids loved him. He was smart, over-qualified."

Valerie Castile, the mother of Philando Castile — who was shot to death during a police traffic stop in suburban Minneapolis, Minn., Wednesday — says her son's death is part of a pattern of police killing black people, and that there need to be consequences.

A woman who began streaming video on Facebook immediately after her boyfriend was shot by police in suburban Minneapolis, Minn., says he had been stopped for a broken tail light — and that he was licensed to carry a gun. The killing of Philando Castile, 32, is the second fatal encounter between police and a black man to gain national attention this week.

A court in Spain has sentenced Lionel Messi, widely hailed as one of the best soccer players alive, to 21 months in jail for tax fraud. Messi 's father, Jorge Horacio Messi, received the same sentence, over not paying some 4 million euros in taxes.

A South African judge sentenced former Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius to six years in prison Wednesday, imposing punishment for the 2013 killing of Reeva Steenkamp, Pistorius' girlfriend who was shot through a bathroom door in his house.

The sentence is less than half of the 15-year minimum term Pistorius had faced. In announcing the sentence, Judge Thokozile Masipa cited "substantial" mitigating factors in the case of the double-amputee athlete, saying that a long jail term "would not serve justice."

One day after Bryton Mellott's photo of himself burning an American flag led to his arrest in Urbana, Ill., the local prosecutor says no charges will be filed against Mellott. The 22-year-old was released Monday, after questions arose over Illinois' flag desecration law.

Enacted in 2013, that law was the basis for Mellott's arrest. But the state's attorney says it contradicts the Supreme Court's ruling on this issue.

Nearly four years after laying off thousands of workers and announcing that it was going out of business — and three years after Twinkies returned to store shelves — Hostess Brands LLC, the maker of Twinkies and Ding Dongs, is preparing to take its stock public.

The plan is emerging after big changes at Hostess: its business is smaller and leaner; it has far fewer employees; and those employees are no longer represented by a union.

After being called out for editing its live broadcast of the fireworks in Washington, D.C., to show fireworks bursting in clear air — on a night in which the weather was dominated by fog, low clouds and misting rain — PBS called it "the patriotic thing to do."

From west to east, the targets ranged from a U.S. consulate in Jeddah to the holy city of Medina and a mosque in the city of Qatif. So far, at least, the casualties are relatively light when compared to recent similar attacks. In at least one case, the attacker died before reaching their target.

Information about the attacks is still emerging, and some early reports may prove off-base. We'll move quickly to correct the record and we'll only point to the best information we have at the time. Refresh this page for the latest.

The question of where one of the NBA's biggest stars will play next season is now over: Kevin Durant is leaving the Oklahoma City Thunder to join a fellow superstar in Stephen Curry, whose Golden State Warriors narrowly missed out on repeating as NBA champions last month.

In May, Durant and the Thunder had pushed Curry and the Warriors to a Game 7 of their Western Conference playoff before the Oklahoma squad was eliminated from contention.

After a nearly five-year journey, NASA's solar-powered Juno spacecraft achieved orbit around Jupiter on Monday night. Juno navigated a tricky maneuver — including slowing by around 1,212 mph — to insert itself into orbit in what NASA calls "the king of our solar system."

At 11:18 p.m. ET, Juno transmitted a radio signal to Earth that meant its main engine had switched on. It stayed on for 35 minutes, placing Juno into exactly the orbit that mission managers had planned for.

The death toll from Sunday's bombing of a crowded street in central Baghdad has risen to at least 151, and Iraqis have responded angrily, blaming politicians and security agencies for not securing their capital. Iraq's leader got a hostile reception when he visited the area.

A Chinese court has sentenced a powerful former adviser to life in prison, in one of the highest-level cases in the country's anti-corruption campaign. Ling Jihua, who had been a close aide to former President Hu Jintao, will not appeal the ruling, according to state media.

From Beijing, NPR's Anthony Kuhn reports:

"A court in the northern port city of Tianjin found Ling Jihua guilty of taking millions of dollars in bribes, obtaining classified information and abusing his office.

A fishing boat captain is dead and China is asking for a "responsible explanation," after an anti-ship missile was launched toward China from a Taiwanese Navy vessel Friday. Navy officials are apologizing for what they call an accident – a mistake made during a simulation drill.

The incident occurred Friday morning, when a 500-ton corvette that was sitting in the Zuoying Military Harbor launched a supersonic missile that streaked nearly 40 nautical miles before hitting a Taiwanese boat that had been trawling for shrimp.

Gov. Jerry Brown has signed new gun control legislation for California, enacting bills that limit magazine capacity to 10 bullets; require a background check for those purchasing ammunition; and restrict the lending of firearms, among other effects.

In signing the bills, Brown said he wants "to enhance public safety by tightening our existing laws in a responsible and focused manner, while protecting the rights of law-abiding gun owners."

Since 2009, the U.S. has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in countries other than Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, the White House says, providing new details to the often secretive strikes — many of which were carried out via unpiloted drone aircraft.

The administration released these figures for the period from Jan. 20, 2009, to Dec. 31, 2015:

The fatal crash of a Tesla Model S car that was in autopilot mode when it collided with a truck on a Florida highway last month is prompting the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to open a preliminary evaluation of the automatic driving feature.

"This is the first known fatality in just over 130 million miles where Autopilot was activated," Tesla says in a blog post announcing the NHTSA plan. "Among all vehicles in the US, there is a fatality every 94 million miles."

The numbers fluctuate by state, but they also double the findings from a decade ago: An estimated 1.4 million people – around 0.6 percent of U.S. adults — identify as transgender, according to a new study.

Instead of the Arizona Wildcats claiming their second championship in five years, the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers broke through to win their school's first national title, holding on for a 4-3 win in the decisive Game 3 of the 2016 College World Series.

A national championship is a big deal for any college; this one is huge for Coastal Carolina, a school in Conway, S.C., that reported total enrollment of 10,263 students (graduate and undergraduate) when classes started last fall. By contrast, Arizona reported having 43,088 students.

Months after he was granted a new hearing because of new evidence, Adnan Syed, whose 2000 murder conviction was a key focus of the hit podcast Serial, has been granted a new trial, according to his attorneys.

Baltimore City Circuit Judge Martin Welch vacated Syed's conviction, saying in a memorandum that his attorney "fell below the standard of reasonable professional judgment" in handling his case.

Announcing the news Thursday, attorney Justin Brown tweeted in all-caps: "WE WON A NEW TRIAL FOR ADNAN SYED!!!"

Desperate calls from inside the Pulse nightclub; police strategizing and concerns; reports of wounded civilians: those are among the details held in records newly released by the Orange County Sheriff's Office about the June 12 mass shooting in Orlando, Florida.

The records, obtained by member station WLRN in Miami, also show that it took time for law enforcement to get a clear description of the suspect — and that there was concern that officers' shields would not protect them against rifle fire.

The windfall must have seemed heaven-sent. How else to explain a young man who had fled Syria's violence and reached Germany — where he realized the donated wardrobe he'd been given contained 50,000 euros (around $55,000) in cash?

But instead of keeping it, the man contacted the immigration office to ask about turning the money in. And so, eight months after he entered Germany as a refugee from Homs, Syria, the man is being praised as a hero by local police for his honesty.

At least 32 people have died at Istanbul's Ataturk International Airport, where an explosion followed an outburst of gunfire Tuesday night, according to Turkish media. Police and emergency personnel have flocked to the airport. More than 80 people were reportedly injured.

Crucial details about the attack are still emerging: We'll update this post with news from Istanbul as it emerges.